Just so we’re all on the same page here and to avoid any confusion (though complete and utter bafflement is still acceptable): Yes, it’s thatBill Maher and thatRush Limbaugh we’re talking about. While some of his sponsors, late night talk show hosts, and even the president have gone against Limbaugh in the wake of his controversial statements in which he called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute” after she testified before Congress about government-funded contraception, the conservative talking head has found the unlikeliest supporter in this firestorm: Bill Maher. Again, that Bill Maher.

Maher, who is no stranger to starting trouble on Twitter, posted from his page on Tuesday night, “Hate to defend #RushLimbaugh but he apologized, liberals looking bad not accepting. Also hate intimidation by sponsor pullout.”

Barring the possibility we’ve actually warped into some bizarro world overnight where Maher sides with Limbaugh (whose job, he previous stated, is to “scare white men as they get into their truck at lunchtime”) on anything, will even the most liberal liberals think he’s dead wrong about this or does Maher actually have a point here? Or… is this Maher’s cover for the even cruder things he’s said about the likes of Sarah Palin and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Share in the comments section below.

I always wonder who actually listens to him, and this stuff kind of confirms for me that men who are threatened by women is a big part of his target demographic. Ironically, I kind of understand his appeal a little more now.

I wish Limbaugh and Maher would run off to some Hawaiian pineapple plantation together -- like Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors -- and spare the female gender any more ad hominem attacks and needless aggravation.

You've probably heard that recidivist jackass Rush Limbaugh called a Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke "a slut" and "a prostitute" after she testified before Congress about wanting the Jesuits who run her college to pay for her birth control pills. Just to make sure that nobody but nobody ever gets sexually aroused again, the broadcaster who once "had talent on loan from God" spun out a scenario in which he would also watch a video of Fluke having sex. Limbaugh subsequently fake-apologized for his untoward remarks. Why a fake apology? Because being a former Oxycontin addict and super-conservative marrying man means never having to say you're sorry. Not as long as a Democrat's in the White House at least.

But the comedy ain't done yet. Over at The New Republic, Timothy Noah explains why it's like totally different when Bill Maher calls Sarah Palin "a twat" and "a cunt," or when Keith Olbermann calls Michelle Malkin a "mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it."

It's different in two ways.

First, all of the people who were subjected to verbal abuse by the liberal- or left-leaning blowhards and smart-asses mentioned above are public figures. If you follow politics you know who they are. Fluke, on the other hand, though a political activist, was not really a public figure. If you follow politics you probably didn't know who she was until Limbaugh attacked her.

Second, and more important, none of the rappers and liberals and leftists mentioned above is so feared by President Obama or any other Democrat that said Democrat would hesitate to criticize him if the occasion warranted it. That isn't necessarily because Democrats are braver people. It's because there is no rapper or liberal or leftist commentator or talk-radio host or comedian who commands anything equivalent to the knuckle-dragging army of haters that Limbaugh leads on the right.

Yeah, that's not really much of a counter-argument.

For starters, Noah goes pretty light on the abuse-o-meter. At The Daily Beast, Kirsten Powers provides a somewhat more in-depth catalog of vagina dentata imagineering by liberal asshats.

Left-wing darling Matt Taibbi wrote on his blog in 2009, “When I read [Malkin’s] stuff, I imagine her narrating her text, book-on-tape style, with a big, hairy set of balls in her mouth.” In a Rolling Stone article about Secretary of State Clinton, he referred to her “flabby arms.” When feminist writer Erica Jong criticized him for it, he responded by referring to Jong as an “800-year old sex novelist.” (Jong is almost 70, which apparently makes her an irrelevant human being.)

Over the years he has referred to the former first lady, senator and presidential candidate and current secretary of state as a “she-devil,” “Nurse Ratched,” and “Madame Defarge.” Matthews has also called Clinton “witchy,” “anti-male,” and “uppity” and once claimed she won her Senate seat only because her “husband messed around.”

But if Noah's catalog of rancid liberal misogyny is incomplete, is he right that Fluke isn't a public figure and hence not fair game? She's not as famous or all growed up as, say Hillary Clinton or Laura Ingraham ("a right-wing slut" according to MSNBC populist Ed Schultz), but even Noah notes that she's a political activist. But that's besides the point: How does being, I don't know, a syndicated columnist such as Michelle Malkin, make it less fucked up that Matt Taibbi wants to put "a big, hairy set of balls in her mouth"? The point isn't that Rush Limbaugh is a bigger tool than liberals who resort to sad-sack sexist japes. It's that there's something seriously fucked up with all of that sort of thing. Especially when you're pretending to be serious thinkers or writers or commentators.

Noah's second reason for why Limbaugh needs to be held to a different standard is also odd: El Rushbo has more divisions than the Pope when it comes to commanding a Dittohead Army or something. If asked about it, any pol should dismiss such dumb comments, as should listeners. What exactly that has to do with, say NPR favorite Marc Maron's comments about hate-fucking Michelle Bachmann, I don't know.

If you've ever needed a reason to rethink dumb attachments to the left-right, liberal-conservative Manicheanism at the heart of conventional politics, the sort of idiotic Team Red vs. Team Blue mentality underscored by Noah's need to exonerate the misogyny of his ideological allies should give you something to ponder.

Update: Last night, Timothy Noah replied at TNR to this post, writing that he was not defending "the unacceptably vile things" that folks such as Taibbi, Olbermann, and Maher has said. Rather, he reiterates his point that "It matters more to society what a person with a big following says than what a person with a small following says" (italics in original).

All of God's children are not beautiful. Most of God's children are, in fact, barely presentable.

He is dumb as a box of rocks. And making 58 million a year! PLEASE let him get dropped from every station.
He must be scared of educated women, especially those single vamps.

Yes because clearly women must be uneducated, married, and tied down with a passle of brats at their feet and one in the oven or they might actually realize their potential, which leads to the downfall of society, the kind of America he knows and loves where the rich white man is king and errbody else keeps to their place.

FUCK YOU AND GIVE ME MY GODDAMN VENTI TWO PUMP LIGHT WHIP MOCHA YOU COCKSUCKING WHORE BEFORE I PUNCH YOU IN THE MOUTH. I just get unpleasant in my car. - Deej

Rush Limbaugh has managed to cause quite a media frenzy since his offensive comments about law student, Sandra Fluke, have caught the nation's attention. But the controversial radio host, known for his conservative views and sharp tongue has claimed a defense for his actions that might just make more people shake their heads and roll their eyes: rappers do it all the time.

After Limbaugh referred to Fluke as a "slut" and a "prostitute" (in addition to a number of other offensive comments) for advocating that insurance companies cover birth control, he issued an apology saying his words were "insulting." But in response to the continued flight of advertisers from his show--a number that now totals close to a dozen sponsors--he expressed his outrage at his unfair treatment in a culture that has tolerated such language elsewhere, like rap music.

"You talk about a double standard," Limbaugh said in a post on his website. "One of the greatest illustrations of it is that rappers can practically say anything they want about women, and it's called art."

Limbaugh went on to discuss the media and Democratic party's role in the deterioration of morality in society.

I certainly don't call the trash and filth in mainstream hip-hop 'art'.

I remember, back in the early 80s, I worked for a major telecom company part time through college. They made us attend a seminar on sexual harassment. In that seminar they showed a study that showed that by the year 2010, white men would become the minority in the work place. We all laughed. But here we are seeing that rich, white men are indeed feeling very threatened. Now we must decide it we allow them to treat us badly, or that we earn and demand respect.

You don't engage with crazies. Because they're, you know, fucking crazy. - WitchCurlGirl

I don't like the comparison of Limbaugh's miosgynistic oeuvre with Olbermann, Maher, Schultz, Matthews, et al.

While what they said was totally unacceptable and should have (and in Schultz's case, at least) resulted in suspensions, Limbaugh has built his career on the backs of insulting and mimimizing women who aren't conservative, or who just meet with his general ire. He's done it for decades. And never been suspended. And never will be.

I don't like the comparison of Limbaugh's miosgynistic oeuvre with Olbermann, Maher, Schultz, Matthews, et al.

While what they said was totally unacceptable and should have (and in Schultz's case, at least) resulted in suspensions, Limbaugh has built his career on the backs of insulting and mimimizing women who aren't conservative, or who just meet with his general ire. He's done it for decades. And never been suspended. And never will be.

I agree. Never acceptable, but Rush has has made his living at this day in and day out for decades. The others seem to have learned, at least publicly. Rush seems to believe it, mean it, and say it to be hurtful, while the others seem to use such "bad" words the way a child does. At least, IMO.

LOL, refresh the page to see something go viral right before your eyes. The signatures are collecting faster than you can press F5.

ETA: Lemme guess. Bill Maher tweeted that from the Playboy MANsion.

Did you know that Maher once drove his car to the entrance of a hospital when he broke up with one of his Playboy Playmate former gf's? In case, she might need to seek some kind of counseling or crisis management? And no, I'm not kidding.

Did you know that Maher once drove his car to the entrance of a hospital when he broke up with one of his Playboy Playmate former gf's? In case, she might need to seek some kind of counseling or crisis management? And no, I'm not kidding.

Yeah, he's a pig. I never like Maher's schtick - either you agree with him and you are a cool kid, or you disagree and a loser. He makes perceptive remarks sometimes, but largely he's attitude. I much prefer Stewart and Cobert.

Maher's is covering his own ass with this Rush defense. He could be next. Also, suddenly he is on the front page of every news site. Smart.

CHILLY FREE!
i have to zero the contain to your level -bugdoll
you can't even be ogirinal - Mary